fridge running down leisure battery

Post by **sean collins** » 28 Aug 2007, 12:51

Hello all,
Plugged the fridge into the mains for about 4 hours on saturday to get the thing cold before setting of for the bank holiday. Switched the fridge to battery during the drive (about an hour) with a ten minute stop at tescos for the essentials (beer, wine, cheese, wine, beer, bread, beer and wine). Got to the site, switched the fridge to gas, went to the beach, had a great day,

that evening when we got back to the van the leisure battery was dead. Not even a fliker on the Zig unit.

(beers were icy cold though)

I haven't normally bothered using the fridge on battery when driving as I try and get it cold on the mains before we go. I know the fridge is supposed to be run from the battery only when the engine is running but I assume the fridge on battery shouldn't run it right down, would the 10 minutes in tescos have done this?

Post by **Ian Hulley** » 28 Aug 2007, 12:55

You're supposed to run the fridge on 12v from the engine battery, with a relay to switch it off when the engine's not running.

IIRC the fridge draws 7a so shouldn't have flattened the leisure battery that quick ... perhaps a symptom of other issues

Steve Mocki has an excellent diagram of how to wire this ... probably on the Wiki methinks ?

Ian.

Post by **tonytech** » 28 Aug 2007, 13:27

I'd check your split charge relay, and the switch (or Relay) that turns the fridge 12V system off.

T

Post by **futurecut** » 28 Aug 2007, 13:32

Leisure batts do dometimes suffer from weird charging cycle problems too and need replaced. You might have a dead wee leisure battery - i recently came accross a 35ah one. They tend to onlky work to abouit 50% rating anyway so one that big wouldn't lastr long. I'd definately test both relays though.

Post by **Nicola&Tony** » 28 Aug 2007, 19:52

How can I test to see if our split charge relay is OK? There's a relay in the engine battery box, so this will be for the split charger won't it? We had a similar problem to Sean when we were away on holiday.

If we drive around with the fridge switched to battery it drains the leisure battery (which is actually a car battery from Halfords that we only just bought in Jan. this year). We're always very careful never to have the fridge switched to battery if the engine isn't running (there's a low-tech reminder that lives in the dash tidy to help prevent this!) and it can't be accidentally knocked on to battery because there's another switch higher up on the inside of the van that also has to be in the right position to run the fridge on battery.

Would it be easier just to replace the relay? If so, what sort do I need and where from etc?

Grateful for any info.

Tony

Post by **tonytech** » 28 Aug 2007, 20:05

To test split charge relay...
This depends on the split charge relay being switched by the alternator output.

Put a voltmeter on the leisure battery terminals.
With engine off the reading will be roughly 12V or less, depending on state of charge,
Turn key to first position, turn on heated screen or other load, reading should NOT change.

Turn off load.

Start engine, reading should increase to 13.5 to 14V

T

Post by **sean collins** » 29 Aug 2007, 06:32

Cheers for the advice everyone. Will check out the split charge relay as sugested. I think I am going to put a second leisure battery in parallel (having read a bit about this on the wiki). Hope you get yours sorted too Tony.

Post by **Nicola&Tony** » 29 Aug 2007, 17:11

Likewise Sean! Thanks Tony Tech!

Tony